Certs credit and Master degree

Discussion in 'IT and Computer-Related Degrees' started by wannabeit, Jan 13, 2011.

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  1. wannabeit

    wannabeit New Member

    Has anybody encountered this problem? I've spoken with an adviser at UIS and she claimed that they don't accept credits from Certs programs (MCSE, CCNP, etc.) for their Master program. She stated that Certs credits are not from accredited school. I am confused but I will keep trying to get in.
     
  2. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    The only school accepts cert for credits are: Aspen University (US), and Charles Sturt University (Australia).
     
  3. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    While obtaining academic credit for certs is fairly common at the undergrad level, especially with the schools primarily discussed on these forums, at the grad level it's pretty rare. I've heard that Charles Sturt in Australia will grant some credit but have not heard of it being done at any American schools. It's possible a school like WGU, which basis competency on cert exams, or some of the for-profits may give you credit. Are you trying to fulfill pre-reqs with the certs or obtain actual program credit?
     
  4. wannabeit

    wannabeit New Member

    I was advised by the adviser that on my Excelsior College transcript contain credits from certs program that are not from accredited school.
     
  5. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    Are they saying your degree is not acceptable based off the fact that you earned some credits via certs? If so I'd take that up the chain. They require an RA bachelor degree and I can't help but to believe yours' should be fine. They took my TESC degree without issue, though I didn't earn any credits via certs... couldn't figure out a way to get the idiots there to accept them.
     
  6. sandrajames

    sandrajames member

    I am afraid to post here as someone will come and say that I am promoting unaccredited schools.

    Certifications are also hardearned (although unaccredited) and should be regarded..
     
  7. wannabeit

    wannabeit New Member

    "Are they saying your degree is not acceptable based off the fact that you earned some credits via certs?"
    That's exactly what she said, they do not accept credits for certs. Therefore, I did not have enough GPA hours (120) to meet their requirement.
     
  8. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Is it the degree they are not accepting or some prereq's to get into a graduate program? I used certs for my COSC degree and it was accepted by TUI (non-profit), UF, and CSU-DH without question.
     
  9. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

  10. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    I thought of that too... the MIS program does have business and CIS pre-reqs that may not have been met, the CS program, math and CS pre-reqs. But the issue here appears to be with the contents of his / her BS degree.
     
  11. wannabeit

    wannabeit New Member

    I've left several messages with the program chair. To reiterate, my problem is out of the 123 credit earned for my BSIT, all credits given to me (21) via certs are not accepted because the credits were not from an accredited school. Incidentally, this is for the Master in Computer Science program.
     
  12. wannabeit

    wannabeit New Member

    Here the email that I've received from UIS.

    After our phone conversation I had your file pulled to my attention so that I could better answer your questions regarding your admission decision. Admission to the Graduate programs at UIS requires a Bachelor’s degree to be a minimum of 120 credit hours earned at regionally accredited colleges/universities. While Excelsior College is a regionally accredited institution, Excelsior sometimes accepts credits from non-regionally accredited institutions.

    Excelsior College accepted 16.00 from Essex County College, 12.00 from CLEP General Exams, 21.00 from CLEP subject exams, 6.00 from DANTES subject standardized tests, 28.00 were earned from Excelsior itself, 3.00 from Lost Angeles Valley College, 3.00 from Los Angeles Trade Tech College, 9.00 from Santa Monica College, 3.00 from Texas State Univ-San Marcos, and 3.00 from West Lost Angeles College. This comes to a total of 104.00 credit hours from regionally accredited colleges/universities.

    Excelsior College also accepted 8.00 hours form Comptia Certification exams, 8.00 from Microsoft Certification exams, and 3.00 from CISCO exams for a total of 19.00 hours. These hours were earned from non-regionally accredited sources.

    Your Excelsior degree was earned with 104.00 credit hours from regionally accredited institutions and is, therefore, not admissible to the graduate programs at UIS. While I understand your frustration at being denied admission to UIS, our policy determines the types of credit we can and cannot accept and we cannot accept some of the credits that make up your degree.

    I regret the delay this may have caused in your academic plans and I wish you luck in your future endeavors,
     
  13. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    Damn... sorry to hear that. I'd check to see if you could maybe test out of the rest or earn a certificate or career studies diploma at a CC and then transfer in the credits. Otherwise, I'm sure there are other programs that would love to have you.
     
  14. ITJD

    ITJD Active Member

    Sounds like it's more a problem of how Excelsior reports credits earned by certification. Essentially they're too honest :)

    To add to the list. WGU also accepts certs for credit but they have to be the certs in their program AND they don't classify those credits as certs on their transcripts. You just pass their domains
     
  15. BrandeX

    BrandeX New Member

    Those exams are ACE reviewed. Isn't ACE equivalent to RA? Send them an ACE transcript too.
     
  16. GeneralSnus

    GeneralSnus Member

    From what I found on Acenet, it appears only the MCSE is ACE reviewed.
     
  17. Rohan

    Rohan New Member

    UIS computer science department and graduate admission office is a bunch of ***. They just hate colleges like Excelsior for their generous credit transfer policy. They will ask you to submit transcripts from all the institutions you attended. And after you spent hundreds ordering all transcripts, they won't even bother looking at them. They'll simply look at the EC transcripts and find certification credits and deny you application. After all EC is a RA institute and their degree holds the same value as UIS but they come up with their rules. They won't accept Microsoft certifications or Game institute. I believe JSU also has similar policy.
     
  18. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Another instance of stupidity here is that they won't accept your industry certifications, but seem to have no problem with your CLEP tests, even though those are no closer to being regionally accredited transfer credit than industry certifications are.

    -=Steve=-
     
  19. BrandeX

    BrandeX New Member

    You're probably looking in the wrong place. Look under "Microsoft" virtually all of their exams, including the latest series are reviewed.
     
  20. dlcurious

    dlcurious Member

    This isn't true... I got in with a TESC degree. Another member, guitarmark2000 (I think), got in with an EC degree that he tested almost completely out of. The problem, obviously now, is the credits earned from certs. As such, as suggested earlier if the OP was set on attending UIS I'd recommend (with the approval of UIS admissions) trying to earn the additional credits via testing out or picking up cheap CC credits into an additional credential they could add to their resume. UIS is like any public institution in that you have hoops to jump through to attend and graduate.
     

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